


Post-party Blues

by soldiermom1973



Series: 1,000 years (A Reconciliation Story) [1]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Backstory, F/M, Forehead Kisses, Shenko - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-07 17:55:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20313631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soldiermom1973/pseuds/soldiermom1973
Summary: Kaidan wakes up alone in Allie Shepard's bed after the party and shares a tender moment with his former love.





	Post-party Blues

**Author's Note:**

> I have spent the last several months picking away at a post-war Shenko reconciliation fic. None of that is posted yet, but this idea came to me last night as I was going to sleep. The premise is Allie Shepard and Kaidan Alenko were in a relationship while they were chasing Saren, but Allie chose not to pursue it when she had her Sanity Check lunch date with Kaidan during the Reaper war.

Kaidan woke with a start, pausing to catch his breath and get his bearings. He was in Allie's room, in her bed, but she wasn't there. He closed his eyes and sighed, thinking back to the night before. They'd beaten her clone (a clone of all things... that was definitely one of the things Kaidan never thought he'd say he did) and Allie decided to throw a party. The booze was flowing freely and Grunt and Wrex were challenging anyone and everyone to drinking contests. Kaidan accepted, knowing his biotics would keep him mostly sober, but he hadn't counted on Traynor's concoctions packing as much of a punch as they did.

He stretched, sighed, and tried to remember how he got into Allie's bed...

_“Come on, Major. You need to get to bed,” Allie murmured, slinging his arm over her shoulder and helping him up the steps._

_Kaidan hummed in response and didn't argue. Allie seemed to avoid him ever since their lunch date at Apollo's, so he reveled in the closeness and contact. He hesitated, though, when she led him to her bedroom._

_“You're letting me sleep here?” He tried to keep his speech from slurring and swayed a bit before turning around and flopping backward on the bed._

_“Yes. I'll sleep on the couch.” Allie picked up one of his feet and removed the boot._

_“That's not fair to you,” Kaidan protested, propping himself up on an elbow. “This is your place.”_

_“Yes, but I fit on the couch better than you will. I don't need my best soldier out of commission because he slept like shit.” She repeated the process with his other foot, then swung his legs onto the bed, forcing him to pivot so his head was on the pillows. “I'll be fine.”_

_He remembered her kissing his forehead, lingering for a moment like she was thinking about climbing in next to him, and his heart ached when she left the room instead. The last thing he remembered was her calling him 'my best soldier' and drifting off with a smile on his face._

Kaidan checked the time, shocked it was so early. He listened for other movement in the apartment, not surprised when his ears were greeted by silence. Everyone else was probably still passed out or otherwise silently nursing raging hangovers. He chuckled to himself as he grabbed his boots and padded out of the room in his stocking feet – he didn't want to wake anyone with the noise of the boots on the hard floor – and was thankful his biotic metabolism flushed the alcohol from his system fast enough to leave him hangover-free.

He paused in the middle of the staircase when he saw Allie curled up on the couch. She was laying on her right side, one hand curled up near her ear and the other curled in a loose fist at her side. A blanket was rolled up and between her knees, something Kaidan remembered she did on the SR-1 to help keep her back and hips from getting out of whack. He frowned when she visibly shivered and hurried to check on her.

Like most biotics, her body was unnaturally warm but more prone to chills, so she didn't usually sleep covered up by much more than a sheet or a thin blanket. He saw goosepimples race along her arm and wondered if she was cold, that maybe the blanket between her knees was originally supposed to keep the chill at bay but served a better purpose keeping her back aligned. He didn't want to root through her closets to find another blanket to cover her up with, so he quietly went back to her room and fetched the N7 hoodie he remembered seeing over the back of the door.

He carefully covered her with her hoodie, his heart clenching when she whimpered and shifted just a bit. He took a moment, soaking in the sight of her asleep. Even though they didn't spend much time together, he could see the war was taking its toll on her. She was careful not to let on how stressed she was, but Kaidan knew better. Her posture was slumped, the bags and dark patches under her eyes seemed to get worse by the day, it seemed like she drank more coffee than the entire crew combined, and EDI and Dr. Chakwas mentioned how she wasn't sleeping.

Now, though, the tension was gone from her face. Kaidan didn't remember the last time she looked so relaxed and worry-free. A familiar ache clamped around his heart as he gently brushed a tendril of hair away from her cheek. The gesture made her shift a little, almost turning into his touch and he jerked his hand back, afraid of what might happen if he woke her. He felt like he was barely even a friend to her now, he didn't know what he'd do if he lost that.

When her eyes didn't open and he was sure she was still asleep, he risked leaning forward and placed a soft kiss on her forehead.

“I love you, Allie,” he whispered before moving away. “I always will.”


End file.
